The city housing crisis is in the news, and causing a lot of controversy both city-wide and locally. With Mayor De Blasio launching his 10-year plan (available here: http://www.nyc.gov/html/housing/assets/downloads/pdf/housing_plan.pdf)

to help alleviate the housing crisis in New York, I thought I would try to understand some of what is going on. The major categories:

Supportive housing is a combination of subsidized housing and support services to help people who were homeless, chronically ill, hospitalized, or for young adults aging out of foster care. It is permanent, independent housing that provides support and that is integrated within a community. It is also a best defense against people becoming homeless and living on the street or becoming one more permanent statistic in a homeless shelter.

"The two primary types of supportive housing are:

Single-site: A designated building where each individual or family has a private living quarters and may share kitchens and/or common recreational rooms or other facilities.

Scattered-site: units in apartment buildings spread throughout a neighborhood or community that are designated for specific populations, accompanied by supportive services

Tenants sign a standard lease. Continued tenancy is not subject to any special rules or participation in any particular services. Tenants pay 30 percent of their income toward rent."

This information is quoted from the NYC Department of Mental Health and Hygiene web site at: http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/mental/housing-services.shtml.

In other words, it is rent subsidized housing that often has social/psychological services on site (such as the program at the Pelham Grand which is for the chronically ill). The presence of the services on site is to help tenants eventually be completely independent and achieve a stable, healthy life.

Affordable housing: The Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) works with realtors and community sponsors who sell or rent apartments at affordable prices to low- and moderate-income families (working class). More information can be found here: http://www1.nyc.gov/nyc-resources/service/1021/affordable-housing.

Eligibility is determined by Area Median Income (AMI) of the New York City area.

Some examples are: Low income: $51,780 - Family of four; $46,620 - Family of three; $41,460 - Family of two; $36,300 - Individual. Moderate-middle income: $86,300 - Family of four; $77,700 - Family of three; $69,100 - Family of two; $60,500 - Individual. (These are just some examples, not the entire listing). This information is available at:

Currently, most affordable housing is given out by lottery, leaving many families vulnerable to homelessness or forcing them to leave their home communities or find other alternatives (like living with relatives in overcrowded conditions, remember How the Other Half Lives?). Mayor De Blasio's plan calls for more affordable housing units throughout the city. We desperately need more affordable housing units, as the policies of the recent Bloomberg administration directed all its efforts to enabling developers big tax breaks and subsidies to focus only on luxury housing and homeless shelters, to the exclusion of all else. As our economy moves from full-time employment to a part-time, hourly-wage model, more people are going to be unable to afford the current high rents, even in their own communities, through no fault of their own, despite earning the salaries suggested above. There has been much controversy over this. People often make unwarranted assumptions about those in need of affordable housing. Understand, that these are mostly hard-working people working many hours (like my son, who recently moved back in with us despite a 60-hour work week), who will be priced out of their communities. While some concessions would need to be made, such as loosening parking requirements, etc., we are in the midst of a housing crisis, and this may be one of the only ways to save the middle/working class from being pushed out of the city altogether.

Homeless housing/shelters: From the Coalition for the Homeless:

·"In May 2015, there were 58,906 homeless people, including 14,093 homeless families with 24,014 homeless children, sleeping each night in the New York City municipal shelter system*. Families comprise nearly four-fifths of the homeless shelter population."

*This number doesn't include the thousands living on the streets every day.

Mayor De Blasio has said that he intends to lower the rents paid to landlords at the cluster-site and shelter locations to "only" market value, using the money saved to support more affordable housing and rent subsidy programs. This is what should have been done a long time ago.

Of the thousands of homeless families in shelters, many lost their apartments when their rent subsidy programs (Section 8 and Advantage) were pulled about 7 years ago. They are working class and/or working poor. The strategies outlined above, subsidized housing and affordable housing, will greatly reduce their presence in the shelters.

However, there are thousands of homeless people wandering and sleeping in the streets of the city. Many of them are mentally ill, some have substance abuse problems. Some are dangerous to themselves or others. They need help. When the city/state moved to an "outpatient" mental health model to save money many years ago (Pataki administration) and released thousands of hospital inmates on to the streets to pursue treatment on their own through community-centered care and half way houses, those community-based supports for the most part didn't materialize in any meaningful way and many were left to fend for themselves. We are seeing the results of this failed policy every day on our streets and in our newspapers. We need to bring back some form of regular institutionalized care and help them to get off the streets into a safe environment where they can get the care they need.

I am by no means an expert in housing policy (I don't pretend to be), but the above was my attempt to make some sense out of a hot and very crucial topic concerning our city's future.

On another note, our Family Fun Day on July 11 was a great success; it was a beautiful day and there was a great turnout, and everyone enjoyed seeing our friend John the Magnificent Magician, the Boy Tribute Band, and Uncle Morty's puppet theater. Thank you to our intrepid and loyal volunteers Rob, Rick, Woody (of course), Desiree, and Tony. We would be nothing without you! And of course thank you to Marianne Anderson and Alfredo Perez from NYC Dept of Parks for being wonderful partners these past 20 years, it is always great working with you.

Our Pearly Gates play program began this past Saturday. There was a good turnout, and our play coordinators, Desiree, Juana, and Jason, got to know some of the parents and kids, and are planning some great kids' activities for the next 3 Saturdays. Stop by to meet them and see what good things they have planned. On Saturday, August 15, from 12-4 pm we will have our usual closing day celebration with John the Magician and Uncle Morty's puppet theater, as well as arts and crafts and face painting. Thank you so much to our very generous sponsors: Metro Optics, a great community partner, and Assemblyman Michael Benedetto (who paid us a welcome surprise visit), who has supported us from the very beginning in 1990.

Be careful during the hot, hot weather, remember to drink a lot of water, wear a hat in the sun, stay cool in air conditioning if you can, and don't forget your sunblock!